Grease Stains and Strawberries
by CaptainArwenPond221B
Summary: Two chapters describing Tony and Pepper's relationship through grease and strawberries and eyes and love. A bit of an experiment; give it a read and please review.
1. Chapter 1: Pepper

**This isn't supposed to have a plot, or go in any particular order. Just read it and please, please review. There will be one more chapter, with Tony's view of Pepper.**

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Pepper

She never would tell him, but she didn't mind the grease. She always told him to look nice, be presentable, you have a company to run, but she somehow loved the grease on his fingers and in his hair, she loved the singed eyebrows and unquenchable gleam in his coffee-stained eyes. They were his passion and fierce dedication written down.

She loved the way he held her tight and made her anger evaporate even as she wanted to strangle him. Tony Stark had a heart, and Pepper knew its rhythm; her fingertips had it memorized. She knew his nightmares and his insecurities and had them all mapped out, and she knew how to comfort him. He was different around her than he was with anyone else, she saw it so clearly. He'd shown her his arc reactor, shown her his greatest weakness, and trust. He built trust on her shoulders, and she wasn't sure she could hold him up, but she was going to try.

He always blamed himself.

She wondered if he knew how he looked when he was working, brows drawn together, jaw tight and a faint smirk dancing on his lips, clever words waiting to dance out, hands sure. She never told him, because she thought he knew. He'd catch her watching, and his eyes would soften. He didn't laugh at her when this happened.

She hated his suits and loved them. They were beautiful and incredibly crafted and Tony's obsession. He spent all night down in his lab building them while she slept alone. There were few sights more precious to her, though, than the red and gold flash of Tony out flying on a sunny morning just because he could. He treated her with the same care and precision and attention as he did his work, but with her his eyes were tender and mischievous and he made fun of her, he said and did stupid things because that was him, and she hated him and held him and consoled him. He was hers, after all, and that was her job. She was terrified for him every time he fought, frightened that someone else would come back instead of him and tell her what she never wanted to hear and shatter her.

She loved the calluses on his fingers and hands, knew them as well as she knew her own. She loved the warm brown brightness of his eyes and the ridged scars on his chest and the tiny smirk he had on his face when he actually managed to sleep. Sometimes she even loved the way he frightened her when he fought and her heartbeat pounded until it was all she could hear. She didn't know how she'd come to love his cockiness and smirking and swearing and grease stains, but she had, and she didn't know what she'd do if he changed, if he left. If he died. So she hated his suits and made him coffee in the morning when he came upstairs, eyes bloodshot from working on them night. That's the funny thing about love. It's not always a simple thing. And loving Tony Stark was the most complicated thing Pepper had ever done. Not that she minded.


	2. Chapter 2: Tony

Tony

He'd first been drawn to her by her intelligence, most likely. The unimpressed responses to his flirting. She was a focused, dedicated woman, sharp and clever... pretty too. That strawberry blond hair (not red, never red) and those olive green eyes and rare, soft smiles. Maybe not gorgeous, but certainly beautiful.

He could never get over how she fought away his demons with him. He knew, oh how well he knew, that he didn't deserves her. That wasn't in question. She didn't seem to realize it though, even though she took care of him when his self-destructive tendencies left him hungover or half-starved or dropping with exhaustion. What he always wondered was why. Why did she stay with him?

She ran his company with the strict, calm precision of a military commander, wrestling through tricky problems with stocks and company politics as if it were no trouble. And yet he knew she often got tired, knew by how she would fall asleep halfway through a movie night or she would snap at him. He knew she enjoyed being CEO, enjoyed the challenges and enjoyed not having to clean up his messes as often, but it was a big job. And she was just one very capable lady.

She was allergic to strawberries. That always seemed strange to him, since her hair was strawberry blond and her lips were strawberry red and she smelled vaguely like strawberries. Maybe it was strange that he associated her with that fruit so much, but he wasn't good at poetic thinking. Strawberry was about as good as she was going to get from him.

She had these great black stilettos she wore when she had an extra rough meeting to go to. She called them her war shoes, but he just called them sexy. She said she could probably impale one of those fat board members with them. That attitude had a great deal to do with why he loved her.

She could get so frightened sometimes, and those times she needed him to protect her, but she was tough as nails and stubborn. She didn't back down and she didn't give up. That impressed him, attracted him, reminded him who he'd married. Like the time she saved his life and took out Killian for him? He'd thought she was dead, and it was killing him because it had been his fault. He promised to catch her and he _didn't_... but then she was alright and, what was even more incredible, she didn't blame him for not catching her. It was only natural, then, that he gave up all those suits for her. She deserved at least that much from him, and certainly more.

His greatest fear was that he'd lose her. He knew he wasn't good at relationships, and she was always patient and put up with him, but what if he made a mistake? What if she left, or he failed to protect her? Failed to catch her again? And yet she was always promising to stay, because if she didn't he'd probably die within a few weeks with no one to make him eat and sleep when he had to. That was her way of telling him that she was worried about him, that she wanted him safe. That she would never leave. And damn, but he was grateful. He had a lot to learn, but lucky for him, she was a patient teacher.


End file.
